Union of Christian Socialists

The Union of Christian Socialists ( League of Christian Socialists , niderl. Bond van Christen-Socialisten, BCS ) is a left - wing political party in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 20th century (in 1907–1919 / 1926), whose ideology was based on both Christian and Marxist principles, including on the principle of class struggle . The social base of the party was the workers of the Protestant religion and progressive views.

Opposed private ownership of the means of production, for broad social security, equal rights for women, free education, abolition of excise taxes, the introduction of a minimum wage, the abolition of the monarchy and the Senate, the general disarmament and independence of the Dutch East Indies .

In the elections of 1918, held for the first time on the basis of proportional representation and universal suffrage for the male population, she was able to get into the parliament with only 8 thousand votes (about 0.6% of all) due to the low electoral barrier. The only deputy from the party was its chairman since 1914, Willy Kreuth . In parliament, he collaborated with the Marxist and revolutionary Social Democratic Party and the syndicalist and libertarian Socialist Party.

In 1919, the union began to disintegrate when part of its members, led by a single parliamentarian party, joined the Communist Party established on the basis of the Social Democratic Party. The other part joined the reformist Social Democratic Labor Party; the remaining ones continued to exist independently, until in 1926 they merged with two other Christian-socialist parties (Christian-social and Christian-democratic), forming a Christian-democratic union close to the liberal theology of Karl Barth and eventually included in the center-left Labor Party .